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sin never perishes, except so far as it is washed out by Christ's blood.

This little instance may serve to show us what there is in us which so greatly differs from God's judgment. How many actions, how many words, how many thoughts and feelings of our lives are there which give us no concern at all, and which yet stand recorded as sins before God! Consider the wide extent of St. Paul's words, "whatsoever is not of faith is sin," and then see whether I have at all exceeded their proper meaning. St. Paul says, "whatever we do carelessly and without faith in God that he approves of it is sin." It is manifest, then, that the actions of whole days and weeks, passed as they are by too many in utter carelessness, are nothing but one mass of sin; no one thing in them has been sanctified by the thought of God or of Christ. It is no exaggeration, then, but the simple truth, that our sins in such a case are more in number than the hairs of our head; and it might well be the case, that looking at all this vast number, and remembering God's judgments, our hearts, as the Psalmist says of himself, should fail us for fear.

If we would at all consider this, then our religious exercises would very soon assume a different character; our weekly services in this place, the communion on Sunday next, the confirmation

a few weeks hence, would then take to our eyes their own proper importance, and would be, according to God's institution and purpose, means of grace. If we would at all consider this, the expression which to our ears is not strange but is utterly so to our hearts, of the burden of our sins, would become to us a simple truth: sin would be a burden to us, and Christ's cross a blessed deliverance. But, so long as it is felt to be no burden, so long will Christ's cross be of necessity little valued. An hard matter, indeed, it is to quicken a dulled conscience; an hard thing to discern the evil of that sin on which all the world seems to look with indifference, while God's regard of it, clear to the eye of faith, is to other eyes invisible. This is hard, and therefore it is mentioned as one of the Holy Spirit's great works, that He should convince the world of sin. Let us pray to Him to convince us of it particularly; to open the eyes of our souls, and to quicken their feelings; to teach us to judge ourselves in youth as well as in age, in what we call little things no less than in what we allow to be great; to stop our actions as it were on their headlong passage, and question them and make them yield us an Remember that so many waking hours as we have in every day, so many hours have we of sin or of holiness: every hour delivers in and must deliver its record; and every thing so recorded

answer.

is placed either on one side of the fatal line or on the other; it is charged to our great account of good or of evil. Yes, all that countless multitude of unremembered thoughts, and words, and deeds, take their places distinctly, and swell the sum for condemnation or for glory. In themselves like cyphers, there is a little figure to be placed before them which gives to them an infinite value; there is faith on the one hand to give them all a virtue for good, there is carelessness on the other hand to make them all count for evil. For whatsoever is not of faith is sin; but whatever is sanctified by an holy and careful general intention, is done, even though it be so common a thing as eating and drinking,―is done to the glory of God, and therefore to our own salvation through Christ Jesus.

April 9, 1841.

SERMON VI.

(PREACHED ON EASTER SUNDAY.)

CHRISTIAN

RESPONSIBILITY.

EXODUS, xiv. 20.

The pillar of the cloud came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these so that the one came not near the other all the night.

I SPOKE on Friday of that dulness or hardness of conscience which hinders us so often from dwelling upon our own faults, or from feeling any shame or sorrow for them, and which, by a necessary consequence, hinders us also from feeling any love to Christ, any thankfulness for his death, or any joy in his resurrection. I said, that if we would throw off this dulness, and really take heed to our ways, the difference in the character of all our religious exercises would be very great,-in our prayers, at the communion, or at the confirmation; whereas nothing is more difficult than to speak of any of

the great events celebrated by our Christian festivals, when our hearers are generally careless in their lives, and have no serious thoughts of their own about the matter. We know not what language to use in such a case. If we were missionaries speaking to heathens, then we might attract attention by the novelty of our preaching: we should have to relate the most wonderful thing which ever happened on the earth, and our hearers, to whom it would be no less new than wonderful, would listen with attention and with interest. Or, if we spoke to a congregation of Christians really worthy of their name, there our task would be easy also for the thoughts which our great festivals awaken would so go along with every sentence uttered, that let our words be in themselves what they would, they would fall into such good ground as to bring forth fruit abundantly. But to indifferent Christians, to those whose ears are familiar with all that can be said, while their hearts are altogether indifferent to it, what language can be used successfully? The story of Christ's death and resurrection is like a twice, or rather an hundred times told tale, which we are almost weary of hearing; whilst, on the other hand, there is no deep love for the subject, which would make the repetition of it only the more welcome.

And thus it is that Easter Day, and all the other great Christian festivals, may be likened to the

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